Presently, Windows NT™ is the only operating system with any type of architecture. However, the Windows NT™ framework is operating system specific and cannot be converted or extended to the Unix operating system.
The Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) is an architecture and specification standard for creating, distributing, and managing distributed program objects in a network. CORBA is a software backend architecture. CORBA allows programs at different locations and developed by different vendors to communicate in a network through an “interface broker.” The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has sanctioned CORBA as the standard architecture for distributed software objects (which are also known as network components).
One essential concept in CORBA is the Object Request Broker (ORB). ORB support in a network of clients and servers on different computers means that a client program (which may itself be a network component) can request a service (e.g., a collection of cohesive software functions that together present a server-like capability to multiple clients; services may be, for example, remotely invokable by its clients) from a server program or object without regard for its physical location or its implementation. A service may be thought of as a software program that provides specific functionality. For example, the term network services may refer to software programs that transmit data or provide for conversion of data in a network. Similarly, database services may provide for the storage and retrieval of data in a database. In CORBA, the ORB is the software that acts as a “broker” between a client request for a service from a distributed software object or network component and the completion of that request. In this way, network components can find out about each other and exchange interface information as they are running.